We do not know all of our past causes. We can only be certain of the life we live today. If we think of someone as only evil and of someone as being only a hindrance to our practice then we may very well miss an opportunity to grow and to repay our debts to others. If we set up a dynamic of the other person needing to be fixed, then we place ourselves above them and from that point we fail to see what in our own lives could be changed.
Instead of practicing Buddhism so that we can change everyone else to be the way we want them, we would be better served in saying, “What about myself do I need to change so that I can appreciate the other person as both a Buddha and someone who can teach me how to be a better person?” Viewing others as deficient only serves to foster disharmony and will not help to change our life.
When we begin to think we have to be the cleverest person speaking, I think we have begun to shift from being heart-centered to being mind- and ego-centered. Our conversations about Buddhism are not about twisting someone’s mind or thinking to be in line with our own. That is not fully being respectful of the person to whom you are speaking. When it becomes your desire to outwit someone then it is creating a dynamic of powerover and not power-with. The Lotus Sutra replaces the powerover dynamic of a teacher who has all the answers but does not reveal them. The Lotus Sutra presents us with a power-with where the Buddha says here is everything you need to know to attain enlightenment equal to all Buddhas.
Our most effective strategy should be to determine how do we benefit and cause the person the most joy.
In the Devadatta chapter we learn that this person who caused the Buddha so much grief in the Buddha’s current lifetime was actually responsible for the Buddha being able to become the Buddha. In a previous lifetime Sakyamuni was a king who gave up his kingdom to his prince and sought the Dharma, going about the land beating a drum, seeking someone who could teach him. He came across a great seer who said that he would teach the Great Vehicle of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower on the condition the king would serve him without becoming disobedient.
With great joy the king began serving this seer. He performed all sorts of menial tasks but never begrudged his efforts because he was that sincere in seeking out the Great Dharma. We learn that not only was the king a previous life of the Buddha but the seer was Devadatta in one of his previous lifetimes. Because of this deep connection the Buddha was able to attain enlightenment and become the Buddha we know of today.
This is a wonderful example of how even the most evil person is at the same time not all bad, and also how we too may have a deep karmic connection with that person.
There are six traditionally given reasons for claiming the importance of Chapter 16. These six are: 1. The revelation of the eternity of the Buddha, 2. It shows misguided people the way to Buddhahood, 3. Revelation of the eternal Buddha Land, 4. Eternal salvation of the people, 5. Actual salvation of misguided people, and 6. The vow of the Buddha.
The physician in the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children encouraged his children, in their deluded state, to take the good medicine and not to be afraid they wouldn’t be cured. That statement takes on greater meaning when we consider again the Buddha’s statement at the beginning of this chapter, and his statement in the second chapter, that understanding by faith is the key. So we too should not be afraid to try the Lotus Sutra, and begin to understand by faith and by our actual experiences. This sutra is a good medicine that will cure each of us of the things that cause us suffering in our lives.
The Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children reminds us that the Lotus Sutra is the perfect medicine to cure all the sufferings of this world and this life. It is perfect in every way and is the actual essence of Buddhism throughout eternity. The Buddha says, I have left you, meaning us, this perfect medicine in the form of the Lotus Sutra. Here “left” has two meanings, one being that he has given us the perfect medicine and the other that he has seemingly disappeared. The intent here is to cause us, the sick children, to pick up the good medicine because it will cure us of all our sufferings. All we need do is take it. And because he wants us to appreciate it he shows his death to us as an expedient to make us want to practice harder and to value this priceless teaching encapsulated in the Lotus Sutra.
In every expedient presented in the Lotus Sutra, the expedient is also useful and a necessary step along the way to the ultimate teaching. Nothing the Sravakas or Pratyekabuddhas were taught was useless or of no value. Everything they were taught is necessary to their practice and to our practice even today. The Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Twelve Link Chain of Causation are all important and necessary teachings to enable us to fully understand and practice the Lotus Sutra.
The Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Children is about an excellent physician who has quite a few sons, up to 100 to be exact. It might seem strange to us today that of the 100 children they were all sons and not a one is mentioned as being a daughter. We have to remember this was written in a time when women were really not considered much when teaching was done. We do have in the Lotus Sutra some of the most dramatic and historically noteworthy breaking of conventions regarding women and Buddhism; still the sutra is not perfect in every way.
There are some who argue the sutra should be rewritten to be more gender equitable or neutral. I am opposed to this for the simple reason that the harsh truth is the sutra was not in fact written with a modern equality sensibility.
The idea held by some sects that Nichiren was the teacher of Shakyamuni in some remote past is nothing Nichiren ever claimed. That suggestion only obscures the Eternal Buddha and the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. It is also an attempt to elevate some Nichiren denominations by their claim that somehow they practice a True Buddhism that stands above the Lotus Sutra. It is only by discouraging their followers from actually studying the Lotus Sutra and by offering convoluted explanations that make no logical sense and fly in the face of Nichiren’s own teaching that these denominations seek to elevate their standing.
The Odaimoku is nothing more than praising with our life the heart of the Lotus Sutra. The Odaimoku does not exist outside of the Lotus Sutra. It is not something that replaces the Lotus Sutra. It is merely an abbreviated way to practice the heart of the sutra, which is praising. Nichiren did not invent the Odaimoku; he was not even the first person to chant it. So if Nichiren didn’t invent the Odaimoku, and he wasn’t the first person to chant it, how could he in any logical way be superior to Shakyamuni Buddha, who taught the Lotus Sutra? Shakyamuni Buddha’s life is the manifestation of the Lotus Sutra, and the physical embodiment of the Eternal Buddha, which is revealed in no place other than the Lotus Sutra. It isn’t so much that the Buddha attained enlightenment by means of the Lotus Sutra; it is more that the Buddha is the Lotus Sutra and the teaching of the Lotus Sutra is that revelation.
